BENTIU – A Northern Liech state official has accused officials allied to First Vice President Taban Deng Gai of involvement in land disputes between Northern Liech and Ruweng states.
In an interview conducted by the independent Nyamilepedia on Friday, Doctor Chuotyier, the political advisor to Northern Liech state governor Joseph Nguen Manytuil said several Ruweng state governors brought by Taban Deng from the rebellion have been employing land claims to gain support from their people.
“According to my understanding there are no disputed areas between the two states because each community knows where they were before the 32 states were declared, but some politicians want to create disputes for their own interests,” Chuotyier said.
“Specially, the previous Governors of Ruweng who came with [First Vice President] Gen. Taban Deng Gai from the rebellion and were recommended by Taban to be Governors in Ruweng state such as Maulana Thieji and Ustaz Them de’Machar.
“For them to get back the support of the people of Ruweng they have to claim the ownership of some areas belonging to Northern Liech and it has become a way of campaigning for those seeking to be governors in Ruweng state and that is why it that precedent was followed by Lourance Mabuok and others.
“But to my own understanding the Revitalized peace agreement set a mechanism to resolve the issues to with land disputes, there are two institutions established by the agreement, the TBC [Technical Boundaries Committee] and the IBC [Independent Boundaries Commission].
“These institutions are responsible to go and ask the people of South Sudan in all levels particularly the grassroots. These would be the ordinary people living in those areas and not the politicians about the disputed lands.”
